Talk in the Cockpit

[Duncan_Starchaser]

After the officer left the ship Duncan turned to Cox "Can I talk to you in the cockpit in private for a moment?" he asked. There were somethings that he needed to know.

[Jonash Solo]

"Certainly, we have much to discuss."

[Jonash Solo]

Upon entering the cockpit, Cox heard the familiar sound of the ramp being lowered. He glanced at the ramp's monitor and saw Bay sitting on a sheet working on his robots. Cox lowered his head in disappointment at himself.

He turned his head towards Duncan with his eyes averted, "Please do me a favor, ask Bay to come in here. I have a feeling he needs to hear our discussion. He's on the loading ramp."

Cox returned his gaze to the floor in front of him. His thoughts wandered to Celestine and how she would be disappointed in his actions this day. She would help him fix his moral compass and forgive him out of unconditional love.

This captain and this crew did not know Cox half as well as Celestine, so he wasn't sure they'd even keep him on the ship let alone forgive his actions.

[Duncan_Starchaser]

"Mmm I think it best I talk with you first. Then if we need Bay, we can call him in at that time." Duncan said as he stated to make his way to the cockpit. After a few moments the two men had arrived. Duncan made sure they couldn't be disturbed by closing the door. "We haven't known each other long, so I wanted to ask you. Was it you that caused that explosion?"

[Jonash Solo]

Cox continued to look down and gripped the back of the pilot seat in front of him tightly. He breathed in deeply and sighed out his confession, "Yea, that was me."

[Duncan_Starchaser]

"I had a feeling it was." He told Cox. "Any particular reason you went that route?" Duncan asked. his tone wasn't accusing in any way. It was more like questions a therapist would ask. Duncan did notice that Cox was gripping the back of the pilot's seat tightly. So he wasdoing his best to be as disarming as possible.

[Jonash Solo]

Cox lifted his head and relaxed his grip, "I thought it might be a trap. My military training kicked in and I just acted." (DC: 23 Bluff)

Cox hit the chair with his fist and turned around with a bit of fury in his eyes, "I don't want to see any more of my crew dying or getting hurt. What should have been a simple rendezvous turned into a shit storm."

His voice started to quake with anger, "We need structure, we need better communication, and we need better plans. We need you to step up and do that for us or to find someone who will."

Cox quickly realized he had gone too far and switched to a calmer tone, "Sorry, I'm still dealing with what happened on my last ship."

[Duncan_Starchaser]

Duncan didn't say anything at first. He knew that Cox was trying to bluff him about something (nat 20 sense motive +5 for 25). But he wasn't sure quite what until he mentioned what had happened on his last ship. "Yes you acted with your training... at least in part. You created a distraction that ordinarily would have worked as was intended. However this time it had the unforseen consequences of brining more attention on us in the form of the planetary military." Duncan told him. He put aside what the man had said in anger for now. "The military teaches us how to handle the immediate problem, but experience has taught me that sometimes what we think solves that immediate problem causes bigger ones. Or in simpler terms there are four things we need to remember." He holds up one finger "Make the plan." he holds up two fingers. "Exeute the plan." holds up three fingers. "Expect the plan to go off the rails." Then he holds up four fingers. "and finally throw away the plan."

Duncan took a deep breath. "We had a good plan and we executed it. What we didn't and couldn't account for was someone firing their gun and attracting the security forces. Even then everything would have been fine if everyone would have just blended in and left when I ordered them to. The most that probably would have happened is they would have taken Bay in for further questioning and released him sometime later. But other things happened which I WILL deal with." As he had said this last part his demeanor had changed not darker persay, but definately more in command. Something he had seen Demya do with some of those in the 10th. (I rolled a 21 to intimidate need a save to see if it worked on him or not. If anyone knows what his DC is please let us know)

Duncan moved on. "You then came back here and took off to try and track down the rebels in order to complete the mission. I'm all for completing my mission. But I will make the decision on if we leave people behind. All that being said you're right we do need structure and since this is your ship you'll be my second in command of this mission. I'd normally ask Gadeon or my brother but with Gadeon, Unna, and Ashla going to the palace I'm going to need you to do. I can't have my brother do it because he'll be just as emotionally compromised as I will be when he finds out our sister has been invited to that place. So I'll need someone that can pull me back from making a call based purely on the life of my sister. Do you accept?" Duncan asked holding out his hand to the man.

[Jonash Solo]

Cox puts his hand over his mouth and rubs the sides of his chin as he ponders the offer. He gives Duncan a hard look, takes his hand off his mouth, and says firmly, "No. Crew will die if I'm second in command on this mission. I've already cracked under pressure and have not earned the respect of the crew yet. I need some more experience and maybe then we can reconsider."

"Rely on your normal chain of command and crew to keep your emotions in check. If it's too much for you, hand the command off to the next in line, that's why it exists. If you need a no bull-shit answer about something, just contact me on my data pad or communicator and you'll get one. I think you have all the tools you need here, you just need to use them in the right situations."

[Duncan_Starchaser]

"I wasn't ready for this, and there are still members of this team that I'm trying to figure out how to use to their maximum potential. Sometimes we have to learn on the fly. So what I'm saying is basically deal with it, cause if Gadeon goes over there and what I think is going to happen happens you are the next in command." Duncan said and with that he opened the door and left letting that sink into Cox's mind.